dismissals, this was his best season in first-class cricket. The 86 catches for Lancashire that season remain the county record. The 1963 season proved to be Clayton's best with the bat: he scored 894 runs in all matches at an average of 22.92. And, sent in as a nightwatchman in the match against Sussex at Hove he made 84, the highest score of his Lancashire career. But the following season, 1964, the discord at Lancashire resurfaced and at the end of the season Clayton was not re-engaged. The club issued a statement: "The committee have reviewed the performance of the team both on and off the field during the current season in conjunction with a special report which had been called for. A firm decision was taken not to re-engage P. Marner and G. Clayton on the grounds that their retention was not in the best interests of the playing staff or the club." During the 1964 Gillette cup tie against Warwickshire, in protest at the opposition’s ultra defensive field placements he decided to block out, eking out 19 runs in 20 overs and leaving Lancashire well short of the target. There were protests from Lancashire supporters, described as a minor riot when they gathered in front of the pavilion calling for Clayton’s head. Dyson, who had returned after being sacked in 1960, was also not re-engaged, and Ken Grieves was replaced as captain. Though much of the county committee was then replaced in the end of year election, Clayton was not reinstated and had in any case by then joined Somerset. Somerset cricketer Clayton's arrival at Somerset was itself controversial. Harold Stephenson had been first-choice wicketkeeper since 1949 and captain since 1960, and though he was injured for much of the 1964 season he appears to have expected to continue in both roles. But Somerset's committee offered the captaincy to Colin Atkinson and recruited Clayton as wicketkeeper. The move was initially successful. "Clayton demonstrated that he is among the three or four best keepers in the country," Wisden wrote. "His 85 victims came only one short of the county record held by Harold Stephenson." Moreover, in just his fourth match for his new county, against Middlesex at the Imperial Ground, Bristol, he was sent in again as nightwatchman and this time made 106, the only century of his first-class career. The batting of the rest of his Somerset career